Liam Gregory



Lieutenant General Lord Liam Patrick Gregory, 19th Duke of Kent, VC KG KT GCVO KCB CBE PC DL TD CD GCLJ GCFO CStJ FREng DEng - born 4 March 1981 - is a British landowner, businessman, philanthropist, Territorial Army general, and peer. He is currently serving as Lord President of the Privy Council and Leader of the House of Lords. He is one of 92 hereditary peers - of which only three are dukes - sitting in the upper house. As the Duke of Kent - a title his family has held unbroken since 1491 - he holds the second oldest non-royal ducal title in the United Kingdom, and is the second most senior lay peer in the realm. He is founder and leader of the Inquest, and is additionally the founder, owner and chief executive of IG Corporation, a major global holding firm that collectively employs over twelve million people worldwide. He also holds the distinction of being the single wealthiest individual in the world, with a personal wealth of £429 billion, an investment and brokerage portfolio valued at an additional £607 billion, and controlling business and industrial assets valued collectively in excess of £5.5 trillion. He is the world's first - and currently only - trillionaire. A veteran of World War 3, he saw combat in Alaska, in Taiwan, and in China on the Shanghai and Beijing fronts.

"What I saw in Alaska, in Taiwan, in China...before that I was different. It took something from me.  That's what war does.  Sometimes, I wondered if my wife and my boys would even recognise me when I came home.  I was afraid there wouldn't be enough of me left for them to hang on to.  That maybe the best of me...was gone.  You come home, and you're half a person.  The other half of you is still back there...and always will be." - Lord Gregory, 2010, speaking on his wartime experiences.

Early Life
Born in London on 4 March 1981, he grew up primarily at the family estate of Ledford Park near Linton in Maidstone. From birth until 2007, he was known as Lord Gregory or the Earl Gregory. During the social season, he would accompany his parents to the family townhouse in London, on Belgrave Square in Belgravia. Privately tutored at home until age 12, he graduated from Eton College in 1999. He would go on to attend Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, graduating with an associates degree in engineering in 2001. Having entered the British Army in mid-1999, he was granted his commission shortly after completing his associates degree, in late 2001. When World War 3 broke out in August 2002 with the Chinese invasion of Alaska, he was forced to put his further education on hold. He would return to Trinity after leaving the army, acquiring his bachelor's degree in 2009, masters degree in 2011, and his doctorate in 2013.

Military Service
Lord Gregory spent the first year of the war in Alaska, as part of the British Expeditionary Force sent by Prime Minister Tony Blair to assist the United States in the defense of the territory. He was on the front lines, commanding an infantry company, when the Chinese disengaged and withdrew in defeat in March 2004. Injured twice in the Alaskan Campaign, he spent three months in Vancouver before being deployed, again, as part of the the campaign to retake Taiwan in 2004-2005. He would move from there to take part in the mid-2005 Shanghai Landings. After nine weeks, the Allied forces broke out and began their multi-pronged inland push. He was part of the final Allied strike on Beijing, when four million soldiers from nineteen nations - of which 2 million were American and 500k were British - surrounded the city and several top CCP officials, including General Secretary Hu Jintao, were taken prisoner. He was at a field hospital near the capital recovering from a gunshot wound to his left arm and broken leg when a cease fire was declared, and was still there three days later when the Chinese surrender was announced.

Personal Life
He stands 6'6" tall and weighs 229 pounds. His hair is very dark brown and his eyes are deep green.  He is ambidextrous.

He has been married since 9 May 1999 to the Duchess Lauren Elizabeth, nee Stacy, who was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and whom he initially met in 1997, during a three-month student exchange their junior year. They corresponded throughout 1998 and into 1999, and he visited her family estate every fall for Thanksgiving. Gregory would visit her during spring break in March 1999 to ask her if she would marry him at the end of the school year. She consented, and traveled for on a marriage visa for a visit to the Gregory estate for the first two weeks in April 1999. Her parents were flown at the Gregory family's expense to the UK after her first week there for a stay, where they met the earl and his parents. They were wed a week later at Canterbury Cathedral. She obtained her full British citizenship in 2004, and lives in the UK full time.

The duke and duchess have six children - son Marcus, born 8 January 2000; son Theodore, born 22 March 2001; son Taylor, born 9 July 2002; son Jordan, born 17 August 2008; son Lucas, born 30 November 2009; and daughter Vivienne, both 6 January 2011. The duke is a lifelong personal friend of HRH Prince William, and he and duchess are two of the seven godparents of Prince George of Cambridge. He is additionally, at present, patron or president of over ninety society and charity organizations, and is Chancellor of Kings College, London. He is additionally a Fellow of the Cambridge Alumni Society, and is also a Freemason, with membership in the Royal Arch, Scottish Rite, and York Rite. He also holds membership in four London gentleman's clubs - the Cavalry and Guards Club, the Carlton Club, the Oxford and Cambridge Club, and the Athenaeum Club. He is also a member of MENSA International, and is current President of the British chapter.

The duke was injured four times over the course of the war. In Alaska, he was injured by shrapnel from a flak grenade, then had a bullet go clean through his right lung. This wound was patched up long enough that he was able to see the end of combat operations in Alaska, before being sent to Vancouver for surgical correction of the injury. In Taiwan, he suffered a concussion and shrapnel injuries when a land mine went off not far from his position that killed two members of his company. In China, he was shot in his left arm and broke his left leg, having been knocked down by the bullet's impact. As a result of his injuries, the duke suffers partial neuropathy in his left arm and hand, arthritis in his left leg, and has mild difficulty breathing in conditions where the air pressure is extremely heavy. Post-war, he was treated for PTSD. He takes mild medications for his pains and psychological distresses.

Shortly after mustering out of the army, Lord Gregory joined the Territorial Army, and continues to serve with and support its work. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in 2025. He plans to retire in 2029, when he reaches his 30-year service anniversary.

Lord Gregory owns five residences, not counting Ledford Park. There is the Belgravia townhouse, the townhouse on the 7th arrondissement in Paris, a villa on Lake Como in Bellagio, the townhouse in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts, and the penthouse flat in Aoyama-itchome, Tokyo.

Titles & Styles

 * 3 May 1981 to 9 February 2023 - The Earl Gregory
 * 9 February 2023 to present - His Grace, the Duke of Kent